May 2021

We started May off with a fun adventure on our street.  Our neighbors rented an amazing bouncy house water slide.  The kids had the best time sliding for hours!  It was a magical day.

Don't let this picture fool you.  Atticus had the time of his life.  By the time I took this picture his clothes had dried and clouds had come so things had cooled down a bit.   

Mother's Day came later in the month and it was a good one.  Dane did a great job and Atticus tried so very hard to make me feel special.  He put up "decor" on the walls downstairs and both boys drew pictures for me.  Hinckley was pretty rotten all day, but I still wouldn't trade my job for any other in the whole world.

I found this page Atticus did back when he was Hinckley's age and decided to do the same thing with him. We had a good laugh.

Just before school ended we had planned a trip to the beach.  Then we heard the weather would be chilly and decided to cancel the trip.  Instead, we decided to hike up on Mt. Charleston.  We checked Atticus out of school and took off.  We had no idea what lay in store.

Snow!  At the end of May?!  We were discouraged at first but the boys set off with their winter gear on.  After a few minutes I decided, what the heck, Lucy should try out snow for her first time.  She wasn't laughing... but she wasn't crying, either.  So I put her in the hiking backpack and went to find the boys.

Meanwhile, the boys were having a great time.  They decided to send Atticus back for us.  Lucy and I joined them in no time.

After only a few minutes the snow stopped and the sun came out.  It was gorgeous- just the perfect weather for a hike.  

It was such a fun way to gear up for the summer and prepare for our Bryce Canyon trip.

Hinckley has been so much easier this month.  I'm not entirely sure why but we've had several days that were just very good.  He is such a good helper around the house and has such a sweet, affectionate personality when he isn't fighting us on something.  

He has started doing "homewoke" every day and a chore before he can watch a show and he is so diligent and easy to teach.  He already knew his colors and how to count but now he's starting to identify numbers, letters and their sounds.  His handwriting gets better every day.  I love it!

He has his own unique sense of style- he loves to wear his shoes on opposite feet and likes to match his shirt and shorts (green with green, white with white, etc.)  It can be frustrating sometimes but it's definitely not something I'm willing to fight over.

Speaking of learning, this was his last month of Joy School for the school year.  It has been so fun to compare his first and last day pictures. 

Oops!  This was actually the last day, so we took another one.  

Here he is pretending to be a grandpa on one of the last days of Joy School.

We have had the best time with our sweet Joy School friends.

Here they are the day they graduated.  He was so serious when he got his little "diploma."

This little boy is the sweetest big brother.  He is always "playing" with his little "sisto."  Sometimes he'll feed her, he loves to wake her up and play with her in her crib.  Here they are in a "fort" that he built for them.  She doesn't always appreciate his ideas but loves the attention.  It warms our hearts.

Don't get me wrong.  He can still be very hard.  Mother's Day was possibly the hardest day of the month.  He actually threw a shoe at my head before church and there were many more tantrums and unpleasant moments.  As a general rule, however, we've gotten better at being reasonable and he is becoming easier to reason with.  We still have a long way to go.

Earlier in the month Atticus offered to teach the lesson for Family Home Evening (we hold it weekly with Dane's family and mine through Zoom.)  We made assignments for different family members and practiced a couple times beforehand.  I was so proud of him- he did such a great job!  I mention it here because Hinckley was so impressed that he wanted to practice teaching with me.  He was adorable and went through it a couple times.

Little did we know it would be the perfect warm up for Primary.  Yesterday he gave his first talk and looked so confident.  We are so proud of our little Sunbeam.  I hope this confidence stays!

Hinckley Speaks:

• "My gwampa makes lots of salads wif me." (Said at Joy School.  Huh? He'd never eaten a salad with his grandpa before.)
• "Mom... can you go back inside now?" (While playing with friends outside.)
• "Didn't hurt!" (Said defiantly after being given a light spanking.)
• "Yo a bad, bad mom!" 
• ("How do you think you could earn that privilege back?") "I could shoot you wif vis."
• "I had a good day and my teacho had a good day."
• "Mom, I went potty and then Daddy went potty!" (Said loudly at church.)
• "I don't want you guys to dwill my teef." (Said to each dental assistant at the dentist's office.)
• "Mommy, aw you my teacho?" 
• "Yo a good teacho."
• "Mom, can I have a chopstick?" (Chapstick.)
• "I fink I'm getting stwongo or somefing." (While doing the Murph workout on Memorial Day.)

Atticus continues to make life interesting.

Below you can see a sign he made.  We have been telling him that once school was over he never had to wear a mask again (he actually had no problem wearing masks to school but we don't believe that children who are symptom-free should be wearing masks) and he concocted this sign.  His plan was to march around the neighborhood, declaring that, as the sign says in his writing, "We don't have to wear masks!"

After recruiting a couple friends to help, their plan changed into polling neighbors about masks.  "Do you think we should have to wear masks?"  The result was mixed.  But now that school is out, it is unanimous at home.  No more masks!

It's been so fun to compare his first and last day pictures, too.  What a difference 9 months makes!

It may come as no surprise that his appetite has been bigger than ever of late.  He and some of his friends often try to get "double breakfast" and "double lunch," ha ha, where they eat at home and then eat breakfast at school.  A new favorite food is Dagwood sandwiches with all the adult fixings, meat, cheese, lettuce, pickles, and tomato. 

I love these kinder graduation photos our wonderful photographer friend took.  

(photo credit: lovelyolivinephoto)

Since they were never able to play on the playground during school (except the very last day- I guess they let them play) and they were at home for two months I felt very strongly that he and his classmates should get to play.  I contacted the teacher and some parents and after some brainstorming we came up with a splash pad party.

His amazing teacher, Mrs. Bloom came with her kiddos, too!  It was so fun.

He really progressed quickly at first with his piano playing.  He has definitely slowed down but still will randomly draw little gems like this below- with no help. 

Atticusisms:

• (After explaining what a portrait is to a friend his friend asked him, "How much are you going to pay me for this portrait?") "Nothing!  It's the worst painting I've ever seen!"
• "Dad!  You're supposed to be trying to spend less time on your phone!" (Said fairly often...)
• "We're long-lost brothers!" (About a friend at school.)
• "Mom, can you go back upstairs so we can have our time with Mimi?"
• (LDS missionaries ask him, "Will you accept two challenges?") "Yes. I can accept any challenge." 
• "Dad, you misspoke.  Me and my friends don't misspeak."
• "Ugh, she's been talking for hours!  This is so long..." (About a talk at church- a very good one, I might add.  But it made us laugh.)
• "...Cuatro, cinco seis, ocho, nocho, nueve, dies!" (Singing one of his new favorite songs.)

Oh, our little Lucy Laurel. 

This month was another big one, filled with milestones.  She got her top left tooth on May 3rd and on that same day she started scooting forward (very slowly!)  A week later her fourth tooth (TR) popped through.  That same day she was officially inchworm crawling and she's been exploring the house, little by little, ever since.

She is still on her belly most of the time, digging her toes into the floor and dragging her self with her arms but she's getting up on her knees often.  It's the cutest thing.  She is often letting out little giggles as she crawls- thrilled by all the fun things around her.  The giggles crack us up- they're so dainty and seem higher pitched than the boys.

She LOVES music so much and bounces in our arms to the beat.  Dane got a video of her moving her leg to the beat or "dancing" one day on the floor.

She'll soon be 9 months old but on May 6th she turned 8 months and I was able to snap my favorite picture of her, yet.  

She is the sweetest, most huggable and squeezable little lamb.  She will let me hold her, cheek to cheek, and squeeze me right back, like a little baby koala.  It is such a delight having her in our family that Dane and I agree- sometimes for the last couple months we have felt like we don't deserve her or even like she can't be real.  

With the end of the month, however, things have been a little less magical.  Her sleep regression (it has been like clockwork- she's almost exactly 9 months!) has been all too real.  Now that she's dropping her third nap and has become more mobile, she is starting to fight naps and bedtime harder than ever.  She's even started some night waking again.  She also just got another little cold.  I guess you could say that the spell has been broken, at least a little.

June will be busy month so we're hoping and praying her cold passes quickly so the fun can begin!

Happy Summer, everyone!